The evening starts off with Corey Graves and Michael Cole in the middle of the ring, doing a promo before Gunther interrupts. The Career Killer walks from the crowd with a mic, enters the ring and demands respect from them for himself and demands they leave the ring.
Gunther enters the now-empty ring to significant heat from the crowd which is booing “you tapped out.”
The Career Killer reminds the crowd that they should celebrate him as the Career Killer before General Manager Adam Pearce interrupts and says that’s enough. Pearce’s security detail escorts Gunther out of the ring after Gunther willfully leaves due to being disgraced at what is scheduled to take place.
As they get to the backstage area, Dragon Lee attacks Gunther before the two are separated and Gunther is ushered from the arena. Lee attacks again in the bowels of the arena as Gunther stands up and Cody Rhodes shows up with a blue tie and suspenders on and heads out from Gorilla to the ring.
Cody heads to the ring and begins a promo before being interrupted by The Vision’s Bronson Reed, Logan Paul, Paul Heyman and Austin Theory. As Heyman is booed, Theory takes the mic and berates the crowd. As The Vision approaches the ring, Rhodes claps back at them and The Usos come from the crowd in full yeet mode to prepare for the Men’s Elimination Chamber qualifying match.
The show goes to its first break of the evening as the crowd prepares for the triple threat match between Reed, Uso and the Original El Grande Americano.
After the break, OG El Grande came to the ring and the match was quickly underway. The early action went back and forth and was highlighted by an El Grande moonsault from the top of the ring post to Reed and Uso before another quick break in the action to thank TKOs copious amount of sponsors.
When the match returns, Reed was outside of the ring while Uso and El Grande battled in the confines of the squared circle. Reed returned to the ring and did a double stack fallaway slam to Uso and El Grande to gain control of the bout.
Before the third break in 30 minutes, El Grande hit an impressive German Suplex on Reed to send the match into its final commercial break.
Out of the break, they came back by showing that Reed broke up a pinning combination but may have been injured in the process as he was seen favoring his bicep area outside of the ring with medical personnel.
A back and forth ensued before Uso hit a spear in the middle of the ring, followed by an Uso splash and a 1-2-3 to book his trip to the Elimination Chamber match.
After the conclusion of the match, a promo highlighting the career of AJ Styles played on the TitanTron before a burn out from Tyler Reddick in the parking lot with CM Punk in the passenger seat sent the show to a promo for Clash in Italy.
Following the promo, Liv Morgan and Dirty Dom Mysterio came to the ring in a somber mood as the show went to another commercial break.
Author’s note: Four commercial breaks in 40 minutes is pretty ridiculous. It’s closer to 4 in 25 minutes as the first 15 minutes was ad free.
Out of the ad break, they cut back to the Morgan interview being interrupted by Stephanie Vaquer on last week’s Raw episode. A clearly upset and dejected Morgan came alive after Dirty Dom introduced her and her potential opponents at Wrestlemania - Vaquer and Jade Cargill.
After Vaquer and Cargill came to the ring, Morgan took the mic and became emotional while mentioning self reflection and Vaquer’s struggles to get to WWE. Morgan then turned to Cargill before turning back to hit Vaquer with the microphone and began attacking the World Champion. The promo ended with Oblivion and Morgan standing over Vaquer to solidify the match at Wrestlemania while Cargill will do battle with the winner of Saturday’s Elimination Chamber match.
Byron Saxton was then backstage for a promo with Je’Von Evans. Evans was quickly met by Offset and the New Day with Grayson Waller as the promo was taken over. Offset reminded The New Day that they suck prior to announcing the official theme of Elimination Chamber and a promo highlighting the weekend premium live event.
Following the promo, Maxine Dupri came to the ring for her matchup with Nattie. As Dupri entered the ring, the show cut to break #5 of the evening.
The show returned at the top of the hour with another Styles promo before returning to the ring with Nattie and Dupri quickly getting underway.
As the match shifted to the outside, Dupri had the upper hand until Nattie shoved her into the ring post. Apparently, the moment knocked Dupri out cold which handed the match to Nattie via referee stoppage.
Out of the short bout, the show cut to a backstage promo with the Judgement Day. Balor, McDonough and Dom went back and forth until Balor told Dirty Dom to grow up. The Judgement Day is clearly on the rocks as Wrestlemania approaches.
A boxing promo signing with Zuffa boxing followed the Judgement Day promo before a graphic promo for Brock Lesnar sent the show into yet another commercial break.
Out of the break, Tyler Reddick is on screen prior to an Oba Femi promo. We then head back stage to see the wooden do not open box backstage before Rusev meets Pearce backstage with Femi.
Back in the arena, The Beast Incarnate comes to the ring with The Oracle Paul Heyman. Lesnar enters the ring with a leather vest on before being introduced by The Advocate - Heyman. Heyman gives a small history lesson, mentioning The Undertaker’s streak at Wrestlemania and Lesnar’s ending of The Streak.
As Heyman continues, he notes that no one is interested in Lesnar at Mania. There are six appearances for Lesnar prior to Wrestlemania, and all that has to happen is someone has to show up at one of those appearances to get the Wrestlemania matchup with The Beast Incarnate. The Open Challenge is made official as the show heads to a Becky Lynch promo for the AJ Lee matchup at Elimination Chamber.
After the promo, Je’Van Evans heads to the ring with Offset and the show heads to another commercial break ahead of Evans’ matchup with Kofi Kingston.
Out of the commercial, a promo for this week’s episode of What’s Your Story with Stephanie McMahon and Royce Keys brings us back from the break. Back to the action in the ring, Kingston and Evans have an early feeling out period before a super kick from Evans gets the match going with some action.
As Evans prepared to fly outside of the ring, Kingston ran back into the ring before being caught by a knee from Evans. Kingston attacked Evans outside of the ring before the evening’s persistent every-10-minute-ad-break came through.
Out of the break, Evans got to work before being slowed by a potential knee injury. Evans finally fly over the top ropes before outside interference nearly put the match in the books for Kingston. Offset distracted Kingston before Evans hit an OG Cutter and got the 1-2-3 to finish the match. The Young OG continued to hobble after the matchup even as he was joined by Offset in the ring.
A set of tributes from the wrestlers to AJ Styles followed the match. Abyss, Bobby Roode, Booker T, Rey Mysterio (in a cold bath), Nattie and CM Punk contributed to the tributes to the recently retired Styles.
Cult of Personality hits and CM Punk comes down to the ring with the gold wrapped around his waist. As Punk enters the ring, we cut to another commercial break.
Before we come back to Punk in the ring, a promo with Finn Balor in a suit runs talking about how much he needs the title and has learned from losses in the past including to Punk in Belfast.
Dwight Howard is in the house, along with Jermaine Dupri, Funny Marco and Bow Wow (formerly Lil Bow Wow).
Back in the ring, Punk tells the crowd its not about him tonight, it’s about AJ Styles. Punk addresses the crowd with a what if tonight was the last time he greeted the crowd in Atlanta. What if Finn didn’t jump Punk in Seattle? It’s risky being a fighting champion, but Punk says he’s doing the best he can.
Punk continues with “What If Roman Reigns was here in Atlanta tonight?” He informs the crowd that The Original Tribal Chief is not there tonight, but what if Balor wins on Saturday night. Reigns will be at Raw in Indianapolis. What if Punk punches Reigns in the face next week and doesnt wait until Wrestlemania?
Punk says he doesnt deal in what if’s, only facts. He will let the competition handle the what if’s. He’s the Best in the World, he’s C.M. Punk.
Omos is seen backstage with other TNA talent before Iyo Sky comes to the ring for the Women’s Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match. Raquel Rodriguez and Kairi Sane will join Sky out of the commercial break in the triple threat match to book the final participant for Saturday’s PLE.
Rodriguez quickly dispatches Sane before turning her attention to Sky. Sane returns to the ring and joins Sky in a tag team assault of Rodriguez. After knocking Big Mommy Cool out of the the ring, Sane quickly takes control over Sky.
As Rodriguez returns to the ring, she catches Sane and Sky and hits a double fallaway slam to regain control of the match. Sky hits a moonsault to the outside on Sane and Rodriguez as the show cuts back to another commercial.
Out of the break, Sky looked to take over the match before Rodriguez quickly turned the tide. Sky and Sane went airborne to gain the edge in the match over a neutralized Rodriguez. Sky hit an Over the Moon Sault but the pinfall attempt was thwarted by Rodriguez.
A series of finishers from each competitor was capped off by a Texan Bomb from Rodriguez before she covered Sane for the 1-2-3 to book her trip to the Women’s Elimination Chamber match.
After the match, Cole and Graves gave an update on the condition of Bronson Reed. It was discussed that a distal bicep tear will cause Reed to be out of action indefinitely. After a series of match announcement promos for the weekend’s Elimination Chamber PLE, the show cut to its final commercial break of the evening.
Out of the break, another Styles promo ran to intro The Phenomenal One to the ring.
Styles hits a speaker hard as he walks out of Gorilla position and is greeted by the crowd on the way to the ring. P1 grabs a mic and is interrupted by “Thank You AJ” chants as he stands in the center of the ring.
Speaking from the middle of the ring, Styles recalls his epic in-ring career and his humble beginnings. Styles says he’s done nearly everything, except be a full-time father and it’s time for him to flex to his family and having the best wife in the world.
In recalling the final match with Gunther, he notes it was poetic. His first match was at Royal Rumble in 2016 and his last was at Royal Rumble in 2026. While he didn’t leave his gloves in the ring, he is a man of his word. He then took off his vest, and placed his gloves on top of them after saying he wanted to leave his gloves at home in Atlanta. Styles thanked the crowd for their love as the credits roll to cap off a forgettable episode of RAW with the wrestlers coming from backstage to thank and clap for Styles.
But wait a minute, the lights go out with one bell toll as The Undertaker rides out on a motorcycle to ringside to give a personal thanks to Styles. Undertaker then stared at Styles’ gear and said there’s unfinished business between them. The Undertaker then informs Styles that he is being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a member or the 2026 class.
Styles is joined in the ring by his family as RAW concludes.
TL;DR: This was one of the most disjointed RAW episodes in memory and my memory of RAW dates back to the first episode. The ad breaks every 10 minutes was borderline torturous. Having three minutes of ads for every 13 minutes of TV is next to impossible to follow, especially with very little in-ring action. The writing room is losing the plot. RAW could have been an email this week aside from the Women’s qualifier which was reasonably entertaining.